This Week in History November 5-11

10 years ago:
Julie Lineberger and Joseph Cincotta, owners of Linesync Architecture in Wilmington, unveiled their WheelPad prototype. WheelPad is a handicap-accessible mobile dwelling unit that can be attached to an existing home. The unit was designed to quickly provide an accessible space, allowing people to return to their home soon after a debilitating injury. The units are self-contained, with sleeping, showering, and sanitary facilities, workspace, and connect to the home’s existing utility infrastructure. The WheelPad company currently operates a manufacturing facility in Wilmington.
15 years ago:
The valley was still in recovery after Tropical Storm Irene flooded the region two months earlier. Gretchen Havreluk and Bruce Mullen, who had been hired as business assistance coordinators through a Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation program funded by Dover, said they had met with 80, or 77%, of the businesses that were in the valley before Irene. They reported that 55 businesses had reopened since the flood, another 16 intended to reopen, and 10 were closed.
20 years ago:
A Vernon woman wrote a letter to the Wilmington Selectboard to complain about the town clerk’s participation in a charity calendar in which Deerfield Valley women were featured posing seminude, but with strategically placed props. Four years earlier, the complainant had spurred a battle to close the Ledges, a nude swimming area near her family camp on Harriman Reservoir, by passing an anti-nudity ordinance. She said the sale of the calendar in the town clerk’s office implied that the town consented, and was an “insult” to those who supported the town’s short-lived anti-nudity ordinance. She demanded that the selectboard order the calendar’s removal from the town office building. Selectboard members were not moved by the letter, however, and chair Rob Wheeler said he didn’t see anything wrong with the calendar. “It’s amazing what you can do with a dog and a sheep,” he said. (Referring to the strategically placed props.)
25 years ago:
The Wilmington School Board’s facilities committee made its “final” recommendation for a plan to improve the Wilmington Middle High School building. Of the more than a dozen options the committee explored, they recommended a plan that would demolish the circa 1900 portion of the building, and make extensive renovations and an addition to the newer sections of the building. The cost of the plan was about $9.3 million, a cost that almost doubled when the impact of Act 60 was taken into account.
In a related story, Wilmington and Whitingham school board members announced they had reached an agreement to pursue a joint middle and high school. The breakthrough came after months of discussions.
30 years ago:
Valley voters sent Bob Rusten and Wendell Coleman to Montpelier. It was Rusten’s first bid for the Legislature; and he defeated Sewall Janeway, of Whitingham, for the seat. Coleman was the incumbent, a Republican who was defeated in the primary by challenger Rick Hube. Coleman mounted an independent bid for the seat, defeating Hube 999 to 833.
35 years ago:
Yankee Rowe officials decided not to seek permission to restart the 30-year-old nuclear power station after questions were raised about the integrity of its reactor vessel. The NRC and Yankee were in disagreement over the brittleness of the metal that makes up the reactor vessel and Yankee’s plans to handle an emergency situation. Yankee was working on robotics that would be able to enter the reactor vessel and shave off a small sample of the irradiated metal on which tests could be run. Yankee Rowe officials hoped the test results would allow them to continue to operate the plant until its license was to expire in 2000.
40 years ago:
Hogback Ski Area in Marlboro closed its doors ahead of what would have been its 40th year. Arnold White said skyrocketing insurance costs forced the closure. White would have had to come up with at least $100,000 for a minimal insurance policy. White called the development “devastating” not only to him and those who worked at the ski area, but also to the families who had been skiing at the ski area for the last 39 years. White said he was negotiating with an insurance company and hoped to open the following year.
Wilmington High School teacher David Larsen was elected to the Legislature with a 333-vote lead over his opponent Bill Pusey, of Halifax. Pusey congratulated Larsen and thanked his supporters; Larsen complimented Pusey for a good campaign and said he was “humbled and honored” by voters’ faith in him.
45 years ago:
A pitched roof was being constructed over the flat roof on one of the pods at Whitingham School. Principal Louis Axt said the design complexity of the new roof was “incredible,” thanks to the pod’s hexagonal shape. The original flat roof had been constructed as a cost-saving measure 21 years earlier, but since then repairs had been “constant and futile.”
50 years ago:
The Deerfield Valley News profiled Wilmington resident Arthur Robinson. Robinson was renowned for his woodworking ability, a skill he picked up working at the Estey Organ Factory in Brattleboro at the age of about 13. When he was about 15 years old, Robinson started working on his first fiddle, but he didn’t complete it for another 25 years. After that time, he said, he started and finished a new fiddle about every 15 years. At the time the article was written, Robinson, who was 91, was working on his fifth fiddle. In the early 1930s, Robinson made a cello because, he said, “They said I couldn’t make one, so I did.” Robinson also had a ukulele that he made years earlier when he was working at Childs Tavern (now known as Crafts Inn).